Diving into Mountain West football assistant coaching salaries

USA Today released its FBS assistant coaching database Wednesday, and let's just say there's a lot of money in college football these days. A record 21 assistant coaches made at least $1 million. But perhaps my favorite stat is this: 146 assistant coaches made at least as much this year as Nevada's head coach Jay Norvell, who pulled in $500,000 in guaranteed salary in 2018 (11th among the 12 Mountain West head coaches). Let's dive deeper into the numbers from a MW perspective. USA Today got the numbers for all of the MW schools except Air Force and Hawaii, so they are omitted in this story as they're unavailable.

MW assistant coach pools

1. Boise State, $2,345,018

2. Colorado State, $1,942,375

3. Wyoming, $1,924,297

4. Fresno State, $1,816,136

5. San Diego State, $1,700,984

6. Utah State, $1,700,000

7. New Mexico, $1,540,525

8. Nevada, $1,391,345

9. UNLV, $1,371,010

10. San Jose State, $1,320,240

In short: Colorado State wasted a ton of money on football this season; Nevada had the cheapest staff to make a bowl game in the MW.

Highest-paid assistants

1. Wyoming DC Scottie Hazleton, $400,474

2. Boise State DC Andy Avalos, $355,000

3. Wyoming OC Brent Vigen, $350,470

4. SDSU OC Jeff Horton, $334,920

5. Colorado State DC John Jancek, $333,125

6. Fresno State OC Kalen DeBoer, $333,048

7. Boise State OC Zak Hill, $310,000

8. SJSU DC Derrick Odum, $305,052

9. Boise State special teams coordinator Kent Riddle, $300,000

10. Utah State OC David Yost, $300,000

In short: Wyoming is really spending on its coordinators; Boise State has three of the top-nine paid MW assistants.

Nevada's staff

DC Jeff Casteel, $238,703

OC Matt Mumme, $203,322

AHC/OL Angus McClure, $195,700

CB David Lockwood, $143,170

RB David White, $106,090

ST Tommy Perry, $106,090

WR Timmy Chang, $106,090

DL Jason Kaufusi, $106,090

WR Eric Scott, $106,090

S Mike Chamoures, $80,000

In short: While Nevada ranks third to last in the MW in assistant salary, this is probably the most expensive assistant staff in school history.